That was right. The person on his mind was the third of them.
Tsunade.
The Hokage line's purest bloodline.
The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, was her great-granduncle.
The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, was her granduncle.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was her teacher.
The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, was her junior.
No matter how you looked at it, she was someone surrounded by Hokage.
In terms of strength, qualifications, and prestige, Tsunade was the most suitable choice.
Hatake Kakashi had earned the title of Copy Ninja, but compared to Tsunade, the gap was enormous. Their reputations were not even on the same level.
One was an elite Jonin.
The other was a Kage Level ninja.
The difference was like heaven and earth.
And she had an advantage neither Jiraiya nor Orochimaru possessed.
The invisible backing of the Senju Clan.
On the surface, it looked like nothing. In reality, it was an overwhelming advantage.
The Senju Clan were Konoha's true masters. Even the Uchiha Clan, who claimed to have founded the village alongside them, had only played a supporting role.
Over the years, the Senju Clan had gradually merged into Konoha, seemingly fading away.
But their hidden influence had never disappeared.
Many ninja clans in the village had once followed the Senju. Old bonds and favors still existed. If Tsunade took the seat, she would instantly gain massive support.
From every level of Konoha. From every direction.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru were both accomplished war heroes with loyal subordinates, many of whom held high positions. Even so, they could never command the backing of so many clans.
That was Tsunade's unique advantage.
If he became Hokage, the outcome would not be much better than what Namikaze Minato had faced back then.
Minato had complained more than once about the council restraining him. And yet, he did not have many of his own people to rely on. Trying to wrestle power away from the council, even under the banner of Hokage authority, had been extremely difficult.
He could only claw back influence little by little.
Tsunade would not have that problem.
The Senju connections alone ensured she would never lack capable people. With the support of numerous clans behind her, even the council would have no choice but to retreat.
On top of that, he truly did not want to become Hokage.
So this burden could only fall on Tsunade.
"Tsunade… come back already. The old man needs you."
At the thought, a distinctly lecherous grin spread across Jiraiya's face.
Just imagining Tsunade being dragged back by force, smashing a desk to pieces with a single punch in frustration, made him genuinely happy.
Really happy.
Kaede Kitahara finished updating his diary and went to bed early that night. There was no lottery draw today.
But the revelations he had dropped about the Uchiha coup ensured that several diary holders could not sleep at all.
"How is that possible… it can't be. How could my Uchiha Clan ever stage a coup?"
Uchiha Sasuke muttered to himself.
From as far back as he could remember, he had been taught loyalty to Konoha. The Uchiha Clan was part of Konoha. After the clan's destruction, when he entered the academy, the teachings were still the same.
Loyalty to Konoha.
No one had ever told him that the Uchiha and Konoha had once clashed so fiercely. That the Uchiha had tried to change things, and that the village leadership had not been ignorant of it.
If the Uchiha Clan truly carried such an original sin, then what was he?
The last survivor of a criminal clan?
The glory of the Uchiha Clan that he once took pride in now felt like a cruel joke.
In an instant, he had gone from being the descendant of a founding clan of Konoha to the remnant of a clan on the brink of rebellion.
The gap was too vast to accept.
"Shisui…"
Uchiha Itachi let out a quiet sigh.
"Obito…"
Hatake Kakashi thought of his friend who had died far too young.
"Old man… what have you turned Konoha into all these years?"
Jiraiya murmured.
Someone who had once sworn never to interfere in the village's internal affairs now resolved to push Konoha toward change.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
At Kaede Kitahara's private training ground, he raised one hand. Chakra spun wildly in his palm, forming a Rasengan.
But that was not the end.
Kaede tried to infuse it with Wind Release chakra, slowly shaping it into a massive, spiraling vortex.
After only a moment, he had to give up and disperse it.
"So it still won't work…"
Kaede sighed.
He was attempting to develop one of Uzumaki Naruto's signature techniques from the future.
Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
An absolute S-rank ninjutsu.
It was formed by combining the non-elemental Rasengan with Wind Release, creating an ultimate technique of terrifying power.
In theory, it was not complicated. Kaede had already mastered the A-rank Rasengan months ago. Building on that foundation, adding Wind Release chakra to form the Rasenshuriken should not have been overly difficult.
The real problem lay elsewhere.
The Rasenshuriken was made of countless microscopic wind blades that attacked the target's cells. It harmed the enemy, but it also harmed the user.
Before it was fully completed, the technique could not be thrown. It had to be used at close range, which posed a massive danger to the user.
In the original timeline, when Naruto used it before completion, his right arm suffered multiple fractures and severe chakra pathway damage.
The damage was considered acceptable given the results, but Tsunade still warned him that using it again would permanently prevent him from molding chakra in that arm.
And that was with Naruto's superior Uzumaki physique, the Nine-Tails' regenerative chakra, and Tsunade herself, the best medical ninja in the world, treating him.
Kaede had none of that.
If he forced it, the consequences would be far worse.
So all he could do was keep refining the technique. Until it was complete, it could not be used in real combat.
Still, it was a direction.
With Flying Thunder God already in his arsenal, he now lacked only one decisive technique. One move powerful enough to end a battle.
Wind Release: Rasenshuriken was the obvious choice. The development path was known, and the difficulty was manageable.
After all, Kaede's idea of a decisive move was meant for monsters.
Against those inhumanly powerful shinobi, the Rasengan alone was not enough.
The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, always gave the impression of being just a step short. He was undeniably top-tier among Kage Level fighters, but compared to the monsters that appeared later, something was missing.
The key issue was the lack of a truly overwhelming finishing technique.
That might have been because Minato died too young. Given enough time, he might have developed something like the Big Ball Rasengan or even the Rasenshuriken.
And that was not even considering the eventual arrival of the Otsutsuki Clan.
An A-rank Rasengan simply would not cut it.
While the ninja world classified techniques by learning difficulty as A-rank or S-rank, in practice, those ranks closely correlated with raw power.
And techniques like the Rasenshuriken could be further developed. Sage Art: Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, for example, far exceeded ordinary S-rank power, even if the system had no higher rank to assign it.
Kaede was also very tempted by Naruto's other technique, the Big Ball Rasengan.
But that was practically Naruto's exclusive move.
The core of the Big Ball Rasengan was pouring in an enormous amount of chakra, compressing it into an extremely dense form, and releasing all of that power on impact.
The chakra cost was absurd.
Only someone with the Nine-Tails' near-infinite chakra reserves could truly use it.
A Big Ball Rasengan formed from high-density Nine-Tails chakra hit with the force of a small meteor.
Kaede's chakra reserves had already firmly entered Kage Level and were still growing rapidly. Over the next few years, as his body matured, his chakra would continue to increase.
Even so, relying purely on raw chakra quantity was still beyond him.
The more realistic option was Wind Release: Rasengan.
After Uzumaki Naruto learned Wind Release nature transformation from Sarutobi Asuma, he infused it into the Rasengan, creating a new technique.
Its power surpassed the standard Rasengan and carried the cutting properties of Wind Release.
Even so, it remained within A-rank territory.
"Mystical Palm Technique."
Kaede formed a hand sign. Green chakra surfaced in his left palm.
An A-rank medical ninjutsu.
He pressed it against his right hand, carefully repairing the chakra pathways and cells damaged during his attempt at forming the Rasenshuriken.
Several minutes later, the damage was completely healed.
"My recovery ability is still nowhere near enough," Kaede said with a sigh. "If I had the First Hokage's regeneration, training something like the Rasenshuriken would be nothing."
The deeper he trained, the more absurd Senju Hashirama seemed.
Absurd to a ridiculous degree.
What Tsunade had to use as an ultimate move, the Yin Seal, Hashirama treated like a passive ability.
How was that not broken?
[A/N: Enjoying the story? You can read more chapters early and support me here:patreon.com/Aeroscissors]